ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the perspective from attachment theory in understanding and identifying aggressive behavior and related socio-emotional and cognitive difficulties often seen in the school setting. It discusses theoretical links between the quality of the child-parent attachment relationship and school-related functioning and present guidelines for identifying children with secure, insecure, and disorganized attachment patterns at school-age. It reviews the current empirical literature documenting associations between attachment at school-age and developmental risk. The idea that the quality of attachment behavior in childhood has lasting implications for later socio-emotional development has sparked decades of research on the links between attachment and development of peer relations and behavior problems as well as systematic intervention programs aimed at changing insecure and disorganized patterns. Increasingly, preschool and early school-age children are being referred for intervention for attachment-related problems and caregivers for improvements in parenting skills. Thus, intervention programs have important implications for the health of children and families and for improvements in classroom functioning.
